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Clarice Boucher, who goes by the name Grimes, says she’s still living with Elon Musk, richest man in the world, despite their announced separation. I am relieved. Their child’s name is X, which is short for I’m Punishing You in Advance, Kids Will Make Fun of You.
The news is on Instagram. Grimes was photographed reading The Communist Manifesto, on purpose, because how funny is that? Musk is worth $200 billion. If you ever go out to lunch with Grimes, make sure she gets the check. PS Does she drive…a Tesla?
as really stressed when paparazzi wouldn’t stop following me this wk but then I realized it was opportunity to troll .. i swear this headline omg wtf haha im dead
Full disclosure I’m still living with e and I am not a communist (although there are some very smart ideas in this book -but personally I’m more interested in a radical decentralized ubi that I think could potentially be achieved thru crypto and gaming but I haven’t ironed that idea out enough yet to explain it. Regardless my opinions on politics are difficult to describe because the political systems that inspire me the most have not yet been implemented).
Anyway if paparazzi keep chasing me perhaps I will try to think of more ways to meme – suggestions welcome!
Despite that strong return content wise last night, “SNL” is still suffering viewer apathy.
Last night’s Season 47 premiere had just 3.5 million viewers, which was the same for the last two episodes of Season 46 last May.
But the Owen Wilson-Kacey Musgraves opener brought in less than half of what Chris Rock did for the Season 46 premiere. Rock’s show came in at around 7.5 million.
Of course, last year at this time the election made “SNL” hot, and there was huge demand for political comedy. The Rock show was also the first one back in the studio after the pandemic had made “SNL” virtual.
But the ratings last season dropped precipitously after the election was over. By January they’d leveled off to a regular “SNL” rating of 4.1 million. But then, after Nick Jonas hosted on February 27th, around 500,000 fans left and never came back. Why? Who knows?
Much as I liked Musgraves last night, she wasn’t a boffo opening act for a season premiere. Where was Lady Gaga and her Tony Bennett material? Ah, well, the machinations of booking would give us all ulcers. I’m curious to see how Kim Kardashian fares next week. Her appearance is pandering for ratings. Let’s see if she can improve the numbers. (I doubt it.)
Does Kate McKinnon have COVID? Or did she just agree to return to “SNL” for Season 47 at the last minute?
Something has to explain McKinnon’s absence from the season opener last night. Of all the returning long term cast, she’s the only one who didn’t show up. Even if she were filming her long-aborning Joe Exotic TV series, she could have made an appearance, a wave, something.
Aside from Beck Bennett, who exited after 7 seasons, “SNL” brought back all of its regulars: Kenan Thompson (18 seasons), Aidy Bryant (9), Cecily Strong (9), Colin Jost (8), Kyle Mooney (8), Michael Che (7). Mikey Day and Alex Moffat remain strong, important players. And Pete Davidson, of course, who seemed like he couldn’t believe he was back after basically signing off at the end of Season 46.
But no one has anywhere to go right now, not even Kenan, who actually has his own sitcom on NBC. Things are that uncertain in Hollywood right how. Kate, Cecily Strong, and now Aidy Bryant are all doing commercials, which is unusual for regular “SNL” cast members.
Who seems to have benefited from all the changes? Ego Nwodim has blossomed into a star. She was all over the show last night, and seemed much more invested in what was going on. I loved her “Black Woman Who Is Missing” on Weekend Update. She’s definitely got to bring back her Dionne Warwick– and the show should really have Dionne make an appearance.
All of the segments were better last night than most of last spring. Owen Wilson was a very comfortable and above-average host. (This week with Kim Kardashian coming is going to be frightful.) Kacey Musgraves was an excellent musical guest. She was actually talented, and very impressive, unlike a lot of the musical guests from last season.
Two key “SNL” players with 40 year histories seem to have retired. Colin Jost held up a sign in the finale that read “We’ll Miss You Ken.” Ken Aymong has been a producer on the show since around 1982. Also Don Roy King is stepping down after four decades. They are each multiple Emmy winners. We owe them a world of thanks for entertaining us basically for a lifetime.
Is Warner Bros’ day and date formula with HBO Max in trouble? Or causing trouble?
David Chase’s “The Many Saints of Newark,” the great prequel to “The Sopranos” TV series, scored just $5 million at the box office this weekend. It’s in wide release at over 3,000 theaters.
“Saints” simultaneously appeared on HBO Max. So “Sopranos” fans who are used to watching the series at home may have done the same thing for “Saints.” We don’t know yet and may never know since WB doesn’t give numbers for HBO Max.
The main thing, I guess, is that “Saints” is eligible for awards, especially Oscars. Chase and many of the actors, especially Alessandro Nivola, deserve the attention. This is NOT a TV show, it’s a movie. It’s not even a continuation of a series, like “Downton Abbey.” It’s got a totally different cast and story.
But Chase can’t be happy about the five mil weekend. “Saints” might have done $11 mil or $12 million without the HBO Max option keeping couch potatoes at home. WB wants him to make at least one sequel, but who knows what his motivation will be if the HBO Max option continues?
Could this have been the reason for Chase’s grumpy presence at last week’s premiere? Bada bing.
Everyone in the movie biz was waiting for “No Time to Die” to lure theatergoers back into multi-plexes.
But now, a Marvel movie from Sony has done the trick one week early.
“Venom: Let There Be Carnage” scored a whopping, record breaking $90.1 million opening weekend. That’s $20 million more than Marvel-Disney’s “Shang Chi” just a couple of weeks ago. “Carnage” is now the biggest movie of the pandemic era.
“Carnage” is now the second biggest October weekend opener ever, just behind 2019’s “Joker” with $96 million.
What does this mean for the James Bond film? In the UK, “No Time to Die” is already setting its own records after opening on Friday. So stay tuned…
“Diana: The Musical” is just atrocious. We are so lucky to not to have to see it in person on Broadway. Instead, it’s on Netflix. Unoriginal doesn’t begin to describe it. The so called songs are derivations of 70s rock songs, sounding a lot like bad Elton John even worse semblances of The Who.
The worst of these things completely rips off Pete Townshend’s “Let My Love Open the Door.” He can really call his lawyers now.
The real shock is that people, smart people, spent so much time, money, and effort on this awful project, and during a pandemic. There is no book. It’s just a timeline of Diana and Charles’s relationship, set to banal rock stylings. There are no actual songs–the singing is simply dialogue put to “music” that is without theme or sense.
The cast is uniformly bad save for Judy Kaye, who does her best knowing she’s trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Roe Hartrampf, who plays Charles, cannot sing. He must not try again. Jeanne de Waal is not vocally prepared to take on all of this sludge. She also makes Diana look like a frumpy kindergarten teacher. The real life person I felt sorriest for was Captain James Hewitt, who is reduced to being Diana’s boytoy.
The plot? Like I said, it’s just the timeline, and a few facts become alternative ones as Joe DiPietro tweaks them, inventing things that never happened. We finally rumble to the point where Diana and Charles divorce and then jump ahead to her death — skipping quite a lot including Dodi Fayed and a few others along the way. Poor Dodi– erased from history by a musical.
Who are these people? They are cut out figures from People magazine, without any soul, history, depth, or background. We have no idea what they’re doing or why they’re doing it, and neither do they. They are one dimensional caricatures.
The problem with these musical biographies of people who’ve died after celebrity is that there is no happy ending. We will leave the Michael Jackson musical feeling that way, and certainly plans for a Whitney Houston musical will also end in tears. It’s not going to work to just delete the parts of a story you don’t like to get a musical to work on stage.
As I wrote in the prior item, “Diana” isn’t really selling advance tickets. Its prospects are not encouraging. Maybe it seemed like a good idea once, but by now it’s not and should be abandoned before anyone else gets hurt.
PS The musical excises all mention of Prince Philip, any of Charles’s siblings, the doctor Diana dated before she died, Diana’s brother (also named Charles), and so on. After watching “The Crown,” you might call this Royals for Dummies.
Yesterday was October 1st. And believe it or not, “Diana: The Musical,” began playing on Netflix.
The Broadway show was in previews before the pandemic. It’s scheduled to begin previews again on November 2nd.
In between the producers had the idea to show it on Netflix. The whole show. What did they know that we didn’t?
There was no press release from Netflix or from the show. There was no ballyhoo. It just…happened.
The result: just eight reviews. Seven of them are negative. That’s 14% on Rotten Tomatoes. Not good.
The only positive review isn’t really that great. Stefan Kyriazis of the Daily Express (UK) wrote:
“Sure, it’s superficial and tells us nothing new but, really what can any of those other films and TV series actually reveal that isn’t already out there? At least this whips by in two hours with some catchy tunes.”
The other reviewers are not insubstantial. They are CNN, The Guardian, Entertainment Weekly, Christy Lemire from RogerEbert.com. They are brutal. Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian wrote: “Not since the Cats movie have I literally shouted from my seat: “What? What? WHAT?”
Will “Diana” come to Broadway after all? So far there is little advance sale. I’ve checked a number of dates in November, there are mostly empty houses. Of course, all of Broadway is suffering right now. There’s not much of an advance sale for any show except “The Music Man.” Even “Hamilton” has lots of availability starting in December. COVID and prices are the two reasons, but the former is more than the latter. “Aladdin” opened, closed, re-opened and closed again until October 12th because of COVID. Uncertainty should be the name of a new musical.
It’s possible the “Diana” producers figured they’d sell to Netflix, run the show up to its opening night, and then use COVID as an excuse to close. They can always do a national tour next summer. Away from Broadway, a musical about Princess Diana could have a life. But so far, even critics’ apathy doesn’t spell a promising future.
There was a grand plan for Todd Haynes’ new film, his first documentary, on seminal Sixties rock ensemble The Velvet Underground. They would bring extant founding members of the band like John Cale andMaureen (Mo) Tucker, for a performance at the movie’s premiere. That, sadly, was not to be. The premiere, though, with a posh party at Jazz at Lincoln Center, celebrated the creative energy from which the New York Film Festival emerged, and downtown artists for whom the Velvets were catalyst.
The documentary will debut on Apple TV Plus.
A vivid portrait of the band, yes, “The Velvet Underground” is a deep dive into the historic artistic period of New York in the ‘60’s, especially showcasing the avant-garde filmmakers who shot evocative footage: Andy Warhol, Jonas Mekas. The Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh is a treasure trove of this rare material. The great Ed Lachman shot the interviews in 2018: Mekas at 96 was first.
The film is an homage to these underground filmmakers as well as to Lou Reed, whose teen years on Long Island, complicated sexuality, and drug use provide the backstory for his artistic development. Studying poetry with Delmore Schwartz, Reed read Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Hubert Selby, Jr., and Arthur Rimbaud. Early on, he proclaimed he would be a rock star.
When Welshman and Velvet classically trained musician John Cale first came to NYC, he gasped at the filth. In 1965, he formed the Velvet Underground with Reed. Performing at Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable multi-media events, the Velvets were soon were managed and produced by Warhol, who also created the iconic banana album cover.
How different were they? The story of a trip to Los Angeles where the Mamas & the Papas sing “Monday, Monday” makes that point. The Velvet Underground’s songs, mostly Reed compositions, speak about human frailty: “I’m Waiting for the Man,” “Heroin,” and a personal favorite, “All Tomorrow’s Parties.” The film reinforces their efforts at resistance, so lacking in today’s youth, said Haynes.
At the after party, Todd Haynes, surrounded by his crew—such as producer Christine Vachon — and a who’s who of downtown artists —- Jim Jarmusch, Sara Driver, Alex Gibney, Lee Rainaldo among them—-Lou Reed’s sister and her family—and loyal friends such as Julianne Moore said the archival films, performances featuring the elusive, gorgeous “chanteuse” Nico, were a gift. But add to that Lachman’s richly shot interviews, background colors inspired by Warhol’s portraits.
Some had only attended the Alice Tully Hall screening: Nan Goldin, Julian Schnabel, and Garland Jeffreys. A lovely black & white photo of Reed and widow Laurie Anderson appears at film’s end, but otherwise, she is absent. Lou Reed’s ex-wife Sylvia wanted to know whether the filmmakers were good to Lou. They were reverential.
Andy Serkis’s “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” swamped the box office with Thursday previews and a Friday opening. The total is $37 million. The “Spider Man” adjacent sequel to the first “Venom” is bringing audiences into theaters like it’s the pre-pandemic days. Hallelujah!
Considering what it is, “Carnage” has a 59 rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which ain’t bad. Critics aren’t impressed, but the audience is getting what it wants. Plus you’ve got a quality cast with Tom Hardy. Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, and Woody Harrelson.
“Carnage” is also a good omen for “Spider Man: No Way Home,” coming December 17th. For Sony, combining with Marvel on these movies is a gift from the heavens.
Benedict Cumberbatch has been in the hunt for an Oscar since we met him. He’s one of our premier actors from “The Imitation Game” to “12 Years a Slave” and a ton of great TV performances.
But BC’s performance as Phil, the central antagonist from Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” should do the trick, it’s a fully realized creation of a disarming and unexpected character who powers an entire film himself. He’s like a nuclear generator.
Phil is one of two cowboy brothers in 1925 Montana, men who were raised in a wealthy ranching family. Phil is the vibrant one, Jesse Plemons’ stolid George is the less interesting, responsible brother. From the beginning, something is wrong with their relationship because George, who is always well dressed, can barely tolerate Phil. And Phil, a loner, is blissfully unaware of his brother’s contempt.
George marries Rose, a comely widow played by the incandescent Kirsten Dunst. If you think BC has been waiting around for an Oscar, Dunst was a child star who has gone her own way in a remarkable career. Rose is her best work ever: husband committed suicide, 20ish son is a wan “sissy” (Kodi Smit McPhee). Rose can best be described as someone who has landed in a place and she doesn’t seem to know how or why. She’s almost like a time traveler who lands on this Montana ranch in 1925 randomly. To quote David Byrne: “How did I get here?”
Well, everyone’s going to play the card they are dealt from a cult 1967 novel called “Power of the Dog” by Thomas Savage. Director Jane Campion has apparently plucked the details she liked from the book to construct a screenplay that works. (I’m told the book is even wilder.)
This is a combustible group, these four people, set against magnificent Montana mountains. Ari Wegner’s cinematographer is sumptuous (it’s a great season for landscapes) and Johnny Greenwood’s spare and kind of frightening score reminds a lot of his work in “There Will Be Blood,” which is a good thing.
“Power of the Dog” has been described elsewhere as “noir-ish,” which I guess it is. But it’s also as if “Brokeback Mountain” and “Legends of the Fall” had a movie made by Gus van Sant. With a touch of “Days of Heaven.” And these are also all good things. Campion hasn’t made a movie since 2009, she spent a decade on the great TV series “Top of the Lake.” Her movie achievements are legendary, like “The Piano” and “An Angel at My Table.” Campion likes to live on the cutting edge. The material she’s attracted to is the most unusual. Even when she confronted Henry James for “The Portrait of a Lady,” she made it her own. Nicole Kidman and Barbara Hershey are still resonating from that one 25 years later.
Cumberbatch told me last night at a small reception after the screening at Alice Tully Hall that he used “dream therapy” to create Phil. He and Campion worked on the character for a year. It’s a remarkable invention. I don’t know if a lot of people would venture into theaters for “Power of the Dog” but Netflix will put it at their feet, luckily. This is one time I’m happy to say you will be forced to watch this movie. It’s transcendent. And never boring. You may want to go back and study the clues of this psychosexual horse opera to understand the eventual twist.
